Eastern Dancesport 2017

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Full House Saturday!

It was almost beyond standing room only for Eastern United States Dancesport Championships yesterday night at the Marriott Long Wharf.

No doubt drawing much of the crowd was the show by US & World Latin Champions, Riccardo Cocchi & Yulia Zagoruychenko who received a very warm welcome indeed from this capacity crowd.

It was also the turn of the Open Professional Competitors to strut their stuff and Dmitry & Olena Nikishkin certainly did that winning both the Open Rhythm and Open Latin divisions and winning all 10 dances and all except the international rumba with a majority of 1st places. We were a little surprised to see some much lower scores for them from a few judges in both styles.

2nd in the Latin went to Nikita Malakhov & Nadezda Vlasova 3,2,2,2,2, a strong result for them. Hayk Balasanyan & Emilia Poghosyan were 3rd with 2,3,3,4,3 and a new couple to us, Ivan Kudashev & Kseniya Sokolova took 4th 4,5,5,3,4. Another duel rhythm/Latin pair, Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker took 5th 5,4,4,5,5. Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiou were 6th 7,7,6,6,6 and Aleksandr Vukosavyevic & Jess Li took the 7th place in this final from a 13-couple semi with 6,6,7,7,7.

In the Open Rhythm Ilia Abdulin & Tara Barakov took 2nd in all dances. Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker moved up a spot from their RS result to take 3rd 3,3,4,4,3 while the RS winners were 4th 4,4,3,3,4, Alberto Cortes & Jessa Mae Briones. Kristian Sese & Mae Lozado were 5th 5,5,6,5,5 and Andre Svirydzenka & Yulia Zubova were 6th 6,6,5,6,6.

  The Open Smooth was a close fought event both from the quarter to the semi and then into the final. Once in the final no couple received a majority of 1st places but Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth won the event as they had won the RS the day before. Whereas the RS was a rule 11 tie, tonight they won 3 dances – 2,1,1,1. Runners-up were Morten Jensen & Ashley Mokris 1,2,2,2. Ilia Abdulin & Tara Barakov, one of two 9-dancer couples in the final were 3rd in all dances. Marko Urosevic & partner (the lady’s name is not listed) moved up place from their RS position to take 4th 4,4,4,5 and Kosta Trifunovich & Dinara Khayrulina, the other 9-dancers, slipped a place to 5th 5,5,5,4. Charles & Emily Roberts took the hotly contested 6th place.

The Open Ballroom was the only straight final. Andrey Begunov & Anna Demidova won all dances with the majority of 1st places. 2nd in all wet to Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantley. Dmitry Solomakha & Gabriella Sevillano took all the 3’s and Manuel Trillo & Anna Belyavtseva all the 4’s. 5th went to Nenad Pavlovic & Anastasia Barhatova, again in all dances and Chris Debiak & Kate Woolfe took 6th.

8 couple contested the Showdance and all gave some strong, if varied performances. The judges had a seemingly impossible task and every couple received widely spaced scores. Finally the winners were Nazar Batih & Mariko Cantly with a clever ballroom showdance. However, they received only 1 first place (and also 1 eighth place incidentally) but had enough 2nd’s to win. 2nd went to Dimitriy & Andrea Kuzmenko with a cabaret routine and 3rd to Ivan Kudashev & Kseniya Sokolova performing a Latin style showdance.

Both of the Open Amateur Championships had semifinals and once again featured mainly the u/21 couples. Winning the Latin as in the u/21 were Artem Zhychuk & Klaudia Petriti 1,1,1,1,1. 2nd went to Yevgeni Orlov & Marina Yerina who were not in the u/21 2,2,2,3,3. 3rd fell to Mitchell Itkin & Natasha Shevchenko 3,3,4,4,2. Samuel & Katerina easily won all dances in the Ballroom. 2nd went to Alec Zhang & Zhuoshi Xie 2,2,2,2,4 and 3rd to Dadi Gudjonsson & Marta Carasco 4,3,3,4,2.

Today Eastern continues with pro-am Ballroom and junior divisions.

Celebrating 10! – Eastern United States Dancesport Championships

This year Eastern United States Dancesport Championshipst, organized by Mark & Dawna Nocera, is celebrating its 10th Anniversary.

It was also a new venue for the event this year, the Marriott Long Wharf in downtown Boston, right by the harbor. It is also a good year for entries as the event is a full 1/3 larger than last year necessitating some long days of pro-am dancing.

Yesterday was a full day of Rhythm for the pro-ams commencing at 7:00 AM. We also saw all the pro RS events, the Amateur Ballroom and an amateur team match between Iceland, South Africa and USA. The team match was divided into 2 segments, USA won the Latin and Iceland won the Ballroom.

The RS Rhythm began with a semifinal. The winners, in all dances, were Alberto Cortes & Jessa Mae Briones. They had the majority of 1st places in all dances except the cha cha. 2nd went to Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker and again this was in all dances. 3rd in all went to Kristian Sese & Mae Lozado. Dimitriy & Andrea Kuzmenko took the 4th spot with 5,4T,4,4,4; 5th were Kosta Trifunovich & Dinara Khayrulina 4,4T,5,5,6 and 6th to Ciprian Popa & Alexandra Kopelovich 6,6,6,6,5.

Andrew Escolme & Amy Baker moved up to 1st place in the RS Latin that also began with a semifinal. They placed 2,1,1,1,1 but had the majority of 1st places only in paso doble. With 1,2,4,2,3, Ivan Kudashev & Kseniya Sokolova. This was a close contest and 3rd spot went to Aleksandr Vukosavyevich & Jess Li 3,3,2,3,2. Vlad Astafiev & Annie He Xiou were 4th 4,4,3,4,4. 10-dancers, Dmitry Solomakha & Gabriella Sevillano took 5th in all dances and Howard Wang & Doris Hsieh were 6th.

The RS Smooth was the largest of the 4 events and had a 7-couple final. The reults included 2 Rule-11 ties, the first of which decided the winners. Aaron Talbert & Maggie Toth took it placing 1,1,2,2 narrowly besting Morten Jensen & Ashley Mokris 2,2,1,1. 3rd and 4th places were also determined by Rule 11 and this time Kosta Trifunovich & Dinara Khayrulina got the best of it 4,4,3,3 over Marko Urosevic & partner 3,3,4,4. 5th went to Ryan & Laura Kenner 5,5,5,5; 6th to Evgenii Rozenfeld & Samamtha Jeanne 6,6,7,6 and 7th to Christian Lightner & Kia Kenney 7,7,6,7.

Only 2 couples contested the RS Ballroom and Dmitry Solomakha & Gabriella Sevillano won all dances. Manuel Trillo & Anna Belyavtseva were 2nd.

There were 5 couples in the U/21 Amateur Latin and the result was quite close for 1st and 2nd. The winners were Artem Zhychuk & Klaudia Petriti with 1,1T,1,2,1T. Samuel Hacke & Katerina Hermanova were 2nd 3,1T,2,1,1T. 3rd spot went to Mitchell Itkin & Natasha Shevchenko 2,3,3,3,3. 4th in all dances went to Daniel Gudbjornsson & Soley Hilmarsdottir and 5th to Leano Brown & Carmen Davids.

Samuel Hacke & Katerina Hermanova moved up to 1st in the U/21 Amateur Ballroom, winning all dances with perfect scores. Daniel Gudbjornsson & Soley Hilmarsdottir were 2nd in all and Leano Brown & Carmen Davids were 3rd.

Tonight features all the Open Professional events plus a show by US and World Champions, Riccard Cocchi & Yulia Zagoruychenko.

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